Thursday News Roundup

There’s a war brewing in the cloud. Not too long ago, Amazon launched its Cloud Drive, allowing users to store and access music from anywhere online. On Monday, Google launched its own service, called Music Beta, which also allows online music storage but, unlike Amazon’s player, with no connection to actually buy music. The main contention, though? That Google launched its product without negotiating any kind of licensing with the big labels, who wanted upfront advances and protection again P2P file uploads. Without their consent, Google’s Music Beta went live, albeit to a small, invite-only group of users, weeks before Apple will unleash its own cloud service. Stay tuned as the battle continues.

A more positive note on the issue of sharing: the Library of Congress just launched the National Jukebox, a project that makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. Currently, the Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Additional content will include Victor recordings and others by Sony-owned U.S. labels, including Columbia and OKeh. The National Jukebox is claimed to be “the largest collection of historical recordings ever made publicly available online.” Read more about it here.

You know who doesn’t like to share? Kevin Spacey. Or at least he doesn’t like having albums named after him. Upon learning that New York-based songwriter Jason Drake was planning to call the latest album by his bedroom project, Cassettes Won’t Listen, Kevinspacey, the Oscar-winning actor served him with an order to cease and desist. Read the story and Drake’s reaction here.

You haven’t been on the internet lately if you haven’t heard the name Tyler, The Creator. The young rapper who’s been thrilling desensitized rap fans (remember when NWA was “dangerous”?) with his ultra-violent, highly offensive lyrics was arrested on Tuesday when he appeared outside of a Westchester High School to promote his new album, Goblin. Even if, as Billboard allows, the whole thing was merely a publicity stunt, it’s all fitting in Tyler’s possibly contrived but positively controversial persona. And to make his lyrics even more explicit, artist Dustin Glick illustrated the lyrics of “Tron Cat” for MTV’s Hive. Check it here, but not while you’re at at work… or in eyesight of anyone you know!

And speaking of arrests, Dresden Dolls singer and solo artist Amanda Palmer was arrested in Amsterdam during an impromptu outdoor performance. Fortunately, she was quickly released, as fans held vigil outside of the police station. Check out the video of her arrest and read more about here.

Merge recording artists The Rosebuds have a new album, Loud Planes Fly Low, coming out on June 7. Through Prefix Magazine they’ve made the new song “Woods” available for free download.

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What’s more strange than a collaboration between mad electronic genius Dan Deacon and genius film director Francis Ford Coppola? Probably sitting through all 17 minutes of Deacon’s new video with Jimmy Joe Roche (see also Deacon and Roche’s Ultimate Reality):